Sheet aligning feed mechanism



March 15, 1966 INVENTOR.

WILL/AM B. TEMPLE TON.

ATrq'mvEY. I v

United States Patent Oil-ice 3,240,487 Patented Mar. 15, 1966 3,240,487 SHEET ALIGNING FEED MECHANISM William B. Templeton, Northville, Mich., assignor to Burroughs Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Filed Apr. 3, 1963, Ser. No. 270,251 6 Claims. (Cl. 271-53) This invention relates generally to sheet transport apparatus and particularly to a sheet aligning feed mechamsm.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved sheet aligning feed mechanism in which alignment of a sheet is effected without need of conventional sheet registering bars or retractable sheet registering gates.

Another object of the invention is to provide for a sheet feed device a system in which sheet feed means functions to effect alignment of a sheet enroute along a path of travel.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide a pair of feed rollers operating counter to the intended direction of sheet travel to function as a sheet registering means and reversible in response to registration of the sheet therewith.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following detail description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a sheet feed mechanism embodying features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view, taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the feed drive means and controls therefor.

Referring to the drawings by characters of reference, the sheet feed device comprises, in general, a guideway 10, a pair of upper feed rollers 12, 14 and a pair of lower feed rollers 16, 18. As shown, the upper pair of feed rollers 12, 14 project through opposite sides of the guideway to form a bight therewithin, the roller 12 being the driven roller and the roller 14 being a biased pressure roller. Similarly, the lower pair of feed rollers 16, 18 project into the guideway 10 respectively from opposite sides thereof to form a bight, roller 16 being the driven roller and roller 18 being a biased pressure roller. The spacing between the bights of the pairs of rollers should be such that they may be spanned by the size sheets to be used. The peripheries of the feed rollers are preferably made of polished steel or other material having a low coefficient of friction so that an askewed sheet may slide on the roller peripheries when the sheet is being registered. If desired, caged steel balls may be used in place of the rollers 12, 14 and 16, 18.

In accordance with my invention, I utilize the lower pair of feed rollers 16, 18 as a sheet aligning or registering means for askewed sheets. To accomplish this, I arrange to drive the lower pair of rollers 16, 18 normally in directions counter to the directions of rotation of the upper feed rollers 12, 14 and provide for reversal of the direction of feed of rollers 16, 18 upon an indication of registration of a sheet against the rollers, or indication that the leading edge of the sheet is parallel to the bight of the sheet aligning rollers.

An electric motor 20 is provided to drive the feed rollers 12, 14 and 16, 18. This motor may have its shaft (not shown) projecting from one end thereof for connection by belt and pulley orgears to the shaft of rollers 12, 14. At its other end, the drive shaft of motor 20 is connected by means of a ring gear 22 to a gear shift mechanism including a pair of diametrically oppositely disposed bevel gears 24, 26 driven in opposite directions by the ring gear 22. A shifter member 28, on a shaft 30, is adapted to connect one or the other of the bevel gears 24, 26 to the shaft. Normally the shifter member 28 is in the position shown in FIG. 3, connecting gear 26 to the shaft so as to drive the sheet registering rollers 16, 18 in directions counter to the feed rollers 12, 14. The shifter member 28 is biased to the position shown by a spring 32 which is opposed by a normally deenergized solenoid 34, which is connected to the shifter member 30 by a lever 35.

A pair of horizontally spaced apart photoelectric cells 36 and 38 are mounted on the guideway structure substantially at the bight of the sheet registering rollers 16, 18, and mounted on the other side of the guideway is a pair of electric lamps 37, 39 arranged to direct light beams respectively on the photoelectric cells 36, 38, to maintain the cells normally conductive. The photoelectric cells 36, 38 are connected in parallel to a lead 40 which is representative of the positive side of a source of direct current, and through amplifiers A and an AND gate 42 to a grounded relay coil R. In the circuit of the solenoid 34, the relay R has a pair of normally open contacts R2 which are closed upon energization of relay coil R when both of the photoelectric cells 36, 38 become energized. Since the cells 36, 38 are both located on a line parallel with the bight of the sheet registering rollers 16, 18, it will be apparent that the cells will not be activated unless the leading edge of a sheet, such as the sheet 44, blocks out both of the light beams.

Operation In operation, a sheet is fed into the hopper of the guideway 10 and is fed downwardly by the upper feed rollers 12. 14 to the lower feed rollers 16, 18 which, as previously mentioned, are rotating counter to the rollers 12, 14. If it so happens that the lower or leading edge of the sheet is parallel to the bight of rollers 16, 18, the sheet will block the light beams between the light sources 37, 39 and the photoelectric cells 36, 38. As a consequence, the cells 36, 38 will conduct and cause relay coil R to be energized which will close the relay contacts R2. Upon the closing of contacts R2, the solenoid 34 is energized and through lever 35 moves the shifter member 28 to the left, facing FIG. 3, which disconnects the shaft 30 from gear 26 and connects the shaft to the oppositely rotating gear 24. This reverses the direction of rotation of the lower sheet registering rollers 16, 18 which now function to feed the sheet downwardly within the guideway 10.

In the event that a sheet is askew as it is fed downwardly by upper rollers 12, 14, the sheet as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1 will not block both light beams to the cells 36, 38 and accordingly the sheet registering rollers 16, 18 will not be reversed in their direction of rotation. Instead, the rollers 16, 18 will act to push the sheet upwardly against the opposing action of the upper feed rollers 12, 14, and between these oppositely directed feeding actions the sheet is forced to a position such that its leading edge is square to the direction of travel, or such that its leading edge is parallel to the bight of the registering rollers 16, 18. When this occurs, the sheet is blocking both light beams to the cells 36, 38 whereupon the direction of feed of the rollers 16, 18 is reversed, as above described, to feed the sheet downwardly.

While I have shown and described a sheet feed and registering device in considerable detail, it will be apparent that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In a sheet feed device, a sheet guideway, sheet feed means normally operating to feed a sheet in a direction counter to the intended direction of travel of a sheet along said guideway, activatable means operatively connected to and for reversing the direction of feed of said sheet feed means, and a control member responsive to the approach of a sheet with its leading edge square to the direction of feed to activate said means.

2. In a sheet feed device, a vertical sheet guideway,

a pair of sheet feed rollers normally operating to feed a sheet in a direction counter to the intended direction of sheet travel along said guideway, drive means operatively connected to drive said feed rollers and activatable to reverse the direction of feed of said rollers, and a control member operatively connected to said drive means to'activate the same in response to parallelism of the leading edge of a sheet with the bight of said feed rollers. 3. In a sheet feed device, a sheet guideway, first sheet feed means associated with an operable to feed a sheet along said guideway, second sheet feed means spaced from said first feed means anteriorly thereto with respect to the direction of sheet travel, said second feed means normally driven in a direction to feed a sheet in the opposite direction to the direction of sheet travel, means operable on activation thereof to reverse the direction of feed of said second feed means, and a control member responsive to the positioning of the leading edge of a sheet-square to the direction of sheet travel and operatively connected to activate said means.

4. A sheet feed and alignment device comprising a sheet guideway, sheet feed means operable to feed a sheet along said guideway in one direction only, sheet feed and alignment means rotatable to feed. a sheet in said one direction and normally rotating to feed in the opposite direction to align the leading edge of an askewed sheet square to the path of sheet travel, a drive member operatively connected to said sheet feed and alignment means and reversible in direction of drive, means operable to reverse the direction of drive of said drivemeans, and a control responsive to alignment of the leading edge of a sheet and controlling saidreversing means.

5. A sheet fed and alignment device comprising a sheet guideway, .a pair of sheet feed rollers positioned to feed a sheet along said guideway in one direction, a pair of sheet feed and alignment rollers positioned posteriorly to said pair of sheet feed rollers with respect to the direction of sheet travel along said guideway, drive means operatively connected to said sheet feed and alignment rollers and normally rotating the latter in directions counter to the directions of rotation of said pair of feed rollers to cooperate therewith to align the leading edge of a sheet in parallelism with the bight of said feed and alignment rollers, electrically operated means operable to reverse the direction of drive of said drive means, and a control member responsive to the alignment of the leading edge of a sheet in parallelism with the bight of said sheet feed and alignment rollers and operatively connected to control said reversing means.

6. In a sheet feed device, a sheet guideway having a sheet inlet, a gate across said guideway including a pair of driven rollers having their respective peripheries in cooperating sheet feed relationship, said rollers normally rotating in directions to present their ejection side toward said inlet to stop a sheet, means operable-to reverse the directions of rotation of said rollers to feed the sheet along the guideway on the other side of the rollers from the sheet inlet, and a control member controlling said means in response to registration of the leading edge of a sheet parallel to the axis of said rollers.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,072,235 3/1937 Wormser 27l57 2,428,769 10/1947 Bobst 271-53 2,860,875 11/1958 Staeger 27 l21 3,108,801 10/1963 Van Dalen 27l57 ROBERT B. REEVES, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A SHEET FEED DEVICE, A SHEET GUIDEWAY, SHEET FEED MEANS NORMALLY OPERATING TO FEED A SHEET IN A DIRECTION COUNTER TO THE INTENDED DIRECTION OF TRAVEL OF A SHEET ALONG SAID GUIDEWAY, ACTIVATABLE MEANS OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO AND FOR REVERSING THE DIRECTION OF FEED OF SAID SHEET FEED MEANS, AND A CONTROL MEMBER RESPONSIVE TO THE APPROACH OF A SHEET WITH ITS LEADING EDGE SQUARE TO THE DIRECTION OF FEED TO ACTIVATE SAID MEANS. 